An engaging debut

Jessica Grose's debut novel, Sad Desk Salad, hooks you from the moment you peel open the cover and begin reading. Her writing is funny, smart and real, making her novel an easy choice for our latest must-read pick.

Who hasn't sat at a desk and consumed that limp greenery otherwise known as lunch? Or that sad desk salad, as Jessica Grose calls it. As you dive into Grose's debut novel, you'll relate to much more than said sad lunch, you'll also see yourself in the girl eagerly fighting her way up the ladder of her chosen profession.

About Sad Desk Salad

Alex Lyons is a blogger for Chick Habit, a popular women's website. Glued to her laptop from the time she wakes at the crack of dawn, often not showering and more often than that not changing out of her sweatpants equivalent, she loves her job — putting a snarky spin on the latest news that's hitting the interwebs — or at least she thinks she does.

As Alex consumes yet another sad desk salad (and, by the way, she doesn't even like salad), she begins to realize that getting paid to bitch has its ups and downs. Her seemingly heartless boss, Moira, is so caught up in getting the hottest scoop that she seems to forget that Alex and the other Chick Habit writers are human, wanting them to be accessible online at any point of the day or night. And Moira has no qualms about reminding Alex that she's only one low page view away from being replaced.

So when an anonymous tipster hands Alex the most salacious story of the year, the story that could skyrocket her page views and her career — a politico's squeaky-clean Ivy League daughter caught in a very R-rated activity — it's a no-brainer. At least, at first. But once Alex starts thinking it through, she wonders if helping her career is worth ruining the girl's life. And meanwhile, her relationship with her live-in boyfriend is hanging by a thread as he begins to question Alex's choices. What Alex doesn't seem to get is that this huge scoop could end up spinning her own life out of control.